Wild Bunch co-founder Vincent Maraval drew comparisons between the burgeoning film industry in Saudi Arabia with that of China during a business-focused keynote at the Red Sea film festival this morning.
The keynote, hosted by Deadline’s Diana Lodderhose, began with Maraval explaining his approach to selecting and investing in projects, which he described as “talent-led” before discussing the evolution he has witnessed in the Middle Eastern market. “When I started working, like, 25-30 years ago, the Middle East was basically Lebanon,” he said. “Today that has all changed.
The growth of the region in terms of box office, streamers, and Netflix is coming, but most of the streamers will come. What happened in Saudi Arabia in the last five years is on a scale very comparable to the growth rate of Chinese exportation.” He added that there is “huge growth potential” to be had in Saudi Arabia as well as the whole MENA region, but industry professionals must establish a greater understanding of audience consumption and taste in the region now and in the future. “We all know when a market starts, there is a progression of the local product, and then there is a maturity.
That’s why we need to be clever and find the right positioning,” he said. Saudi Arabia lifted its decades-long ban on cinema in 2017.
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